Due to reflections and intricate camera moves, the on-set cars are actually useless, needing to be replace with digital doubles. 

Continuing down the complicated pipeline, Peristere says, "When we get back to post, there's so much that has to happen. When we are the greenscreen stage, we can't shoot with the windows in because the cameras are actually moving into the cars, so we are constantly moving the camera like a snake. There are no windows in the car and a boatload of tracking marks out the windows and a whole bunch of equipment reflected all over the vehicle, so the actual element of the car is almost useless. What that means is that when we get into post, we have to create a CG version of that car that also matches the lighting on location and carries the reflections that we got on location, so we use our cyclorama as our reflections. It's this soup brewing now. When we get into post, everything has to be tracked in 3D. Every single plate, the A-side, the B-side and the greenscreen all have to be tracked because we have to create a CG car that stays with all three passes. The CG car is rendered with reflections, specularity and directional light that we are able to lay into the car and use as a bridge that creates a seamless transition. The CG acts as the glue that gets rid of all the inconsistencies. You put the windows back in, the rear window, the reflections and the highlights and you give it to Steve Myer in Flame and he throws it into his composite -- and it becomes 30 to 40 layers that essentially doesn't look like visual effects!"

Crunching the numbers, Peristere reveals the staggering number of vfx shots they are creating for Drive. "It's averaging out to about 120 shots per episode. In real life context, that's like doing 1,000 shots in under six months and it's really, really hard. It's a bear because we need to edit and get performance and approvals and still have these short turnarounds. But it's a fluid process that is settling in because, as a concept, this allows [the producers] to shoot 14 to 18 pages a day so it really changes their productivity. It allows them to spend more time getting a bigger show. I call it 'feature television.' What it means for post is that we have to lock those shots first and then get into the debate of how are we going to get it done? Every car has a match clip depending on time of day. Every angle gets a match clip and then we set the team off to work and that's how it works."

Practically, Zoic is splitting the work by car between Los Angeles and Zoic BC. "I would say the team on Drive is anywhere from 15 to 20 artists and that includes multiple 3D trackers, 3D lighters, roto-artists and compositors. It starts in Bijoux and moves to Maya. It's ported over to LightWave and exported to the guys working on the composites for Shake or Combustion. They put together the 3D elements with the giant cyc (which was stitched together in Combustion). They mash it up and hand over the entire pre-comp over to Flame and that seams it altogether for final. We are also using Menfond (of Hong Kong) and they are doing a fantastic job with the straight comps and the greenscreens," Peristere adds. "It's not easy because I didn't want this show to look like a straight composite show, so there are a lot of angles that exist outside of the glass, so they are putting in the reflections."

All that remains is to see if audiences embrace the concept itself. Regardless, Peristere says Zoic is incredibly proud of what they have created. "It's so huge and when people see it, if you aren't from our world, you don't appreciate the amount of labor. It just looks like a really cool car scene. With all this work you expect explosions or a walking machine! It's just not as obvious in what you expect visual effects to be. It's also a very different kind of CG for Zoic. We're not creating foreign things, and everybody knows what driving looks like! It's at ground-level but not a tow. It has a different esthetic. It doesn't feel like anything anybody has seen on television because it is moving fast!"

Tara DiLullo Bennett is an East coast-based writer whose articles have appeared in publications such as SCI FI Magazine, SFX and Lost Magazine. She is the author of the books, 300: The Art of the Film and 24: The Official Companion Guide: Seasons 1 & 2.